Watch: Backlash by LEOBLU

LEOBLU is the musical pseudonym of Berlin-based artist and producer Julia Carlsson, and she has just unveiled the second release from her forthcoming EP.

Leveraging a vintage 80s synth sound, LEOBLU’s latest single, Backlash is equal parts Chromatics and electroclash, with just a dash of Chvrches. A low-slung bass line opens the song, as Carlsson’s vocal performance creates a soft-focus, ethereal aesthetic.

Backlash’s chorus creates a moment of contrast, however, with an increased sense of momentum, and more of a shoegaze, indie aesthetic. The drums mark out an accelerating sense of pace, matched by Julia’s increased movement in the video. The video itself is a departure for Carlsson, as she describes:

‘I never thought I would dance like this in a music video … I’m so happy that I’ve reached a point where I feel completely comfortable doing this. This video means especially a lot to me since I filmed it with my brother Jonathan. He’s such a talented videographer, and I love collaborating with him in this creative way. The location for the video is also close to my heart, since it’s the local town hall in the small town where I’m from, where my father has worked since forever. The music video became this whole little family project, and I feel so grateful for that. And I feel so, so proud of the result!’

The growing sense of momentum on display in Backlash reflects the song’s message of empowerment. LEOBLU, describing the song’s inspiration, says:

‘This song comes from a place of feeling suppressed and pushed down by someone close to you, someone who claims to love you but constantly keeps you down. Backlash is about finally breaking free and becoming the person they always tried to keep you from becoming … Essentially, you have become their ultimate backlash.’

Check out Backlash below, and look out for the forthcoming EP, Blu Lucid Nightmare, due 26 July 2024.

Listen: Saturn Returns by Derek Simpson

Having already built up over five-million streams and placement within several TV shows, LA-based musician Derek Simpson is rapidly building up a following. Whilst Simpson pursues a singer-songwriter style, as opposed to leveraging acoustic guitars or piano, he assembles his songs like a collage, from samples, and fragments of his own prior unused musical work.

On Saturn Returns, Simpson has created a softly mutating piece of melodic pop. Muted guitar supports hushed vocals, creating a spectral, cosmic atmosphere befitting the song’s title. As the song gradually slides into its chorus, taut, digital bass provides a spacious, elastic feeling. Small melodic details twinkly in the song’s background like stars in the sky. Overall, Derek has created a beautiful, layered and distinctive sounding song that leaves me feeling like I am floating in space.

Saturn Returns is lifted from Derek’s Simpson’s new album, Somehow. Each of the album’s ten songs will be released as consecutive singles, each Thursday for ten weeks, starting with Saturn Returns. Check it out below:

Watch: Better Place by Martin Oh

About this time every year, I generally head to the Côte d’Azur for work purposes. The days are long, working with clients in the day, but fun, with social events in the evening. My favourite soundtrack for those trips is Phoenix, one of my favourite French acts, with the warm, sunny but wistful vibe they create forming the perfect backing for these trips.

As I prep for my eighth such trip, Martin Oh’s Better Place slid into my inbox, and as a French indie artist based in Barcelona, it boasts a sunny European vibe, and more than a (French!) touch of Phoenix’s sound. Production work is handled by established musician and producer SOHN, who has formerly worked with the likes of Banks, and the polish and experience shows.

Straight lined synths, muted guitars, and bruised vocals give this the kind of buoyant, sunny vibe, undershot with a dose of yearning, that Phoenix have perfected over the years. Martin’s vocal shifts gears between the downbeat introspection of the verse and the insistent and determined performance of the chorus. It is almost like moving from talking to himself to speaking to the song’s inspiration, his vocal ever so slightly cracking as he does so. Beneath this, soft electronics gradually wrap around him, additional layers surrounding the central vocal and guitar to create an increasingly emotive climax.

Better Place is just two-and-a-half minutes long, but within that time it packs enough ideas, emotion, and energy for something far longer.

Watch: Mirrors by Julia Logan

Having read the book, I recently found myself captivated by the Amazon Prime adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel, Daisy Jones & The Six. TV adaptations of books tend not to interest me, yet the music was described in such detail in Jenkins Reid’s book that I couldn’t help but want to hear it, brought to life for the show.

The result didn’t disappoint, but as a result, I couldn’t help but long for actual musicians and bands focused on writing and producing the kind of rich, sophisticated folk-pop and rock the show embodied. Julia Logan feels like an answer to that hope.

Growing up on a small island near Stockholm, Julia Logan got her start singing in a local church choir. Having spent a few of her teenage years in her mother’s homeland of southern California, Logan learnt to play guitar and started writing music. You can hear the influence of that period in the bronzed aesthetic she employs on Mirrors, which channels the low sun and crashing of a California evening.

Taken from her forthcoming sophomore album, Faraware Nearby, Mirrors moves with the strum of busy guitars and the ache of a yearning heart. Logan is once again working with producer Daniel Bengston, who is known for his work with First Aid Kit but also worked with Julia on her debut album. The pair took inspiration from the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen and Nick Drake, among others, and the result is a sound that feels timeless, rich and authentic.

Watch: Drive Me Crazy by Jean Valery

Hailing from Belgium, Jean Valery brings together a loose and engaging blend of hip-hop, alternative rap and rock into a seamless sound with an effortless sense of cool. Having worked within the hip-hop duo Blackwave, Drive Me Crazy sees Valery unveil his debut solo single.

Drive Me Crazy has a snappy sense of momentum to it, skittering along on rapid rhythms and fuzzy instrumentation. Jean’s performance slips between a percussive rap flow and sung vocals, giving the song a sense of dynamism, and creating a sense of it being constructed in-the-moment, in response to his experience.

The song is an encapsulation of the sense of superposition that can exist in a relationship — of being in two states, both wonderful and distressing. As Jean Valery’s performance switches between styles and a sense of delivery, it feels like two sides of the same story. His deadpan rap is cold, rational, reflective, but gradually builds up as the addictive force of love overrules his head. Describing the song, he says:

‘Drive Me Crazy revolves around a string of experiences and emotions that were lived in a very intense but short, raging love story. So passionate… but turbulent. Blissful… but woeful. Fresh out of a swimming pool full of lovers, urging to feel connected, we shared plenty. Love, affection, pain, and trauma. It was a trip, to say the least. I let her chaos set fire to my being, to my spirit and whichever path it was to be taking me, I became acceptant of it… letting it lead me. While sinking deep into my thoughts, I embraced her beauty, her fury. Succumbed by its existence, I let it fuel me like a raging flame that got out of control… out of character. Until I broke. Until I found myself in the middle of the aftermath, looking to reconstruct the beauty of it all.’

The result is both emotionally resonant, and melodically infectious. Check out Drive Me Crazy below.